Samiha Khalil
Member of the Palestinian National Council
Personal details
Born1923
Anabta, Mandatory Palestine
Died26 February 1999
Ramallah
Political partyNational Front Committee, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
SpouseSalameh Khalil
Children5
OccupationCharity worker, Politician
Known forFounding al-Inaash al-Usra society, Running for president of the Palestinian Authority

Samiha al-Qubaj Salameh Khalil (Arabic: سميحة خليل; born 1923 in Anabta, Mandatory Palestine – died February 26, 1999, in Ramallah), also known as Umm Khalil, was a Palestinian charity worker as well as a prominent figure in Palestinian politics.

Khalil's father was the mayor of Anabta, where she was born.[1] She dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen to marry Salameh Khalil. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the couple fled to Gaza where they raised a family of five children, and in 1964 Samiha finally returned to school and graduated.

In 1965, Khalil came to the public eye when she founded the In'aash al-Usra society in her garage - it would grow to become the largest and most effective Palestinian welfare organization.[2] In 1973 she became the first and only female member of the National Front Committee as well as the National Guidance Committee, to which she was elected in 1979.[3]

During the 1980s, Khalil was tied to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and detained six times by the IDF; she saw two of her children deported from Israel and the other three (who had been out of the country at the time) forbidden from re-entering. She was eventually placed under town-arrest in al-Bireh.

In 1996 she ran for president of the Palestinian Authority, losing to Yasser Arafat, while garnering 11.5% of the vote.[4]

A grandmother of 13, Khalil remained an active member in the political scene, serving on the Palestinian National Council up until her death in 1999.

References

  1. ↑ Hammond, Constance A. (2014). Shalom/salaam/peace : a liberation theology of hope. Abingdon, Oxon. pp. 174–176. ISBN 978-1-315-71097-6. OCLC 1082247773.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ↑ Kawar, Amal (1996-01-01). Daughters of Palestine: Leading Women of the Palestinian National Movement. State University of New York Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-1-4384-0852-1.
  3. ↑ "Samiha Khalil - Feminist Figures (1923 - 1999)". Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question – palquest. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  4. ↑ Natil, Ibrahim (2021-04-13). Conflict, Civil Society, and Women's Empowerment: Insights from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Emerald Group Publishing. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-1-80071-060-3.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.